Systems and methods for safe social gatherings during a contagious pandemic

ABSTRACT

The disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for obtaining and evaluating a test result report in real-time so as to determine an entry status of an individual into the establishment. In an example embodiment, a method involves an entry verification apparatus executing actions such as: receiving digital data associated with the individual; obtaining a test result report that provides an indication whether the individual is currently infected, previously infected, or not infected, by a viral pathogen; evaluating digital data and/or a machine-readable element of the test result report to verify an identity of the individual and an authenticity of the test result report; converting non-standardized information contained in the test result report into standardized information; obtaining entry requirements for enabling entry into the establishment; analyzing the standardized information to determine whether entry requirements are met; and determining an entry status based on the entry requirements being met.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 17/019,349 filed Sep. 13, 2020, and entitled“Systems and Methods for Safe Social Gatherings During a ContagiousPandemic,” which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 63/029,379 filed May 22, 2020, and entitled “Systems and Methods forSafe Social Gatherings During a Contagious Pandemic,” which are herebyboth incorporated by reference in its entirety as fully set forthherein.

BACKGROUND Field of the Art

The present invention is related to a systems and methods for retrievingmedical information and real-time evaluating of the retrieved data toenable entry of an individual into the establishment, and/or for otherpurposes.

Discussion of the State of the Art

The COVID-19 pandemic created by the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus is thelatest and the most dramatic example of a contagious disease that hasimmobilized a significant portion of the economy around the world.Other, recent outbreaks, such as the 2002 SARS epidemic, the swine fluepidemic, the 2012 MERS epidemic, the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic,and the 2015 Zika virus epidemic also affected the macro and microeconomies of various parts of the world in varying degrees.

In addition to the medical costs and the human costs, these epidemicsdamage the economy by causing a significant and sustained decline inin-person contact, as well as a decline in social gatherings andcommunal activities. Often, people who are not infected do not feel safein attending social gatherings and/or may limit discretionary spendingassociated with social gatherings if they believe that the risk ofcontracting a contagious disease is sufficiently high. However,currently, there is no way to allay these concerns and promote healthysocial gatherings even as the transmission rates decline for some of themore dangerous contagious diseases.

SUMMARY

The present invention solves these problems by utilizing an entryverification apparatus of an entry verification system to obtain andevaluate a test result report in real-time and determine an entry statusof an individual into the establishment. The entry verification systemmay be used by various types of establishments (commercial, government,private, public, etc.) to permit or deny entry to individuals who havetested positive or negative for one or more pathogens. Specifically, thepresent invention is for a system and a method for obtainingidentification data from an individual, determining the individual'spersonally identifiable information from the identification data, andlooking up the individual's test result data to determine whether theindividual has tested positive or negative for one or more pathogens.Additional medical data may be obtained such as whether the individualreceived a vaccination or treatment for a particular pathogen, etc. Theresults may be further analyzed to determine whether the individualmeets one or more criteria set forth by the establishment, such ashaving been tested within a predetermined threshold period of time,having received one or more particular tests, having a certainconfidence threshold. This analysis is done in realtime or near-realtimeto enable the establishment to make realtime or near-realtime decisionabout whether to let someone to enter the establishment's premises.

In one example implementation, a merchant may advertise his/herestablishment as a safe space that enables safe social gatheringsamongst strangers with significantly lowered risk of contracting acontagious disease. As such, the establishment may encourage patrons toenter the establishment with confidence for their health and safety.

More specifically, the present invention discloses a method fordetermining whether to grant entry to an individual into theestablishment, the method comprising receiving, by an entry verificationapparatus, digital data associated with the individual; obtaining, bythe entry verification apparatus, a test result report that provides anindication whether the individual is one of currently infected by aviral pathogen, previously infected by a viral pathogen not infected bya viral pathogen, or immunized against a viral pathogen; evaluating, bythe entry verification apparatus, the received digital data associatedwith the user and the obtained test result report to verify that theobtained test result report is associated with the individual;authenticating, by the entry verification apparatus, the obtained testresult report by evaluating a machine readable element of the testresult report; converting, by the entry verification apparatus,information contained in the test result report into a standardizedformat; obtaining, by the entry verification apparatus, entryrequirements for enabling entry into the establishment; analyzing, bythe entry verification apparatus, the standardized information and theentry requirements to determine whether the entry requirements are met;and determining, by the entry verification apparatus, an entry statusbased on whether the entry requirements are met.

In one embodiment, authenticating the obtained test result reportcomprises evaluating at least a portion of metadata associated with thedigital data. Moreover, verifying the identity of the individualcomprises: identifying a type of an identification provided by theindividual; when the identification is issued by a government agency,extracting data from the identification and evaluating the data toverify the identity of the individual; when the identification is issuedby a private entity, verifying an authenticity of the identification;and upon confirming the authenticity, verifying the identity of theindividual. In one embodiment, evaluating the machine-readable elementof the test result report comprises evaluating a spatial dispositionand/or a modification of a text character in a document. In oneembodiment, the document may be comprised of manually-entered text andthe text character is a portion of the manually-entered text. In oneembodiment, converting to a standardized comprises identifyinginformation contained in a portion of the test result report and taggingthat information with a standardized tag. The standardization processmay, in one embodiment, be comprised of arranging elements of a name ofthe individual as provided in the test result report, re-arrangingelements of a date as provided in the test result report, and replacinga first label of a test result in the test result report with a secondlabel. The method may further comprise obtaining, by the entryverification apparatus, a permission from the individual for obtainingthe test result report.

The method for granting entry may be further comprised of receiving, byan entry verification apparatus, a first digital data associated with anidentity of the individual; evaluating, by the entry verificationapparatus, the first digital data to verify the identity of theindividual; receiving, by the entry verification apparatus, a seconddigital data associated with a social behavior of the individual;evaluating, by the entry verification apparatus, the second digital datato determine a risk factor associated with the social behavior of theindividual having caused exposure to a viral pathogen; obtaining, by theentry verification apparatus, entry requirements for enabling entry intothe establishment; and determining, by the entry verification apparatus,an entry status based on whether the risk factor exceeds a thresholdvalue that is defined in the entry requirements.

The method may be further comprised of transmitting to a controller of agate entry system, an activation signal for automatically opening a gatewhen the risk factor of the individual is below the threshold valuedefined in the entry requirements. In one embodiment, the second digitaldata contains information provided by a social media platform. In oneembodiment, the information provided by the social media platform iscontained in a digital image format and/or a text format. In oneembodiment, the method may be further comprised of obtaining a testresult report that provides an indication whether the individual is oneof currently infected, previously infected, or not infected by a viralpathogen; evaluating a third digital data and/or a machine-readableelement of the test result report to verify an authenticity of the testresult report; and analyzing the test result report to determine theentry status further based on whether the individual is one of currentlyinfected, previously infected, or not infected by a viral pathogen. Inone embodiment, the method may be further comprised of convertingnon-standardized information contained in the test result report into astandardized format; and analyzing the standardized information todetermine whether the entry requirements are met.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments and, togetherwith the description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the embodiments. It will be appreciated by one skilled inthe art that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary entry verification system in accordancewith an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates some elements that may be included in the entryverification system shown in FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3 illustrates some exemplary components that may be included in adata processing engine of an entry verification system in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates some components that may be included in an exposureanalysis engine of an entry verification system exemplary in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary flowchart of a method in accordance withthe disclosure to verify an identity of an individual seeking entry intothe establishment.

FIG. 6 illustrates some exemplary components that may be included in anentry verification apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of thedisclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates some exemplary components that may be included in anentry verification apparatus in accordance with another embodiment ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary distributed architecture that may beconfigured to operate as an entry verification system in accordance withan embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computer that may be configured to operateas an entry verification apparatus in accordance with an embodiment ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventive systems and methods (hereinafter sometimes referred tomore simply as “system” or “method”) are described below in reference toFIGS. 1-9 . As described herein, the inventive systems and methodsenable safe social gatherings amongst strangers who may not otherwiseknow whether others in the same establishment have contracted a virusand/or may be contagious with respect to one or more viruses.

One or more different embodiments may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the embodiments describedherein, numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the embodiments contained herein or the claimspresented herein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may bewidely applicable to numerous embodiments, as may be readily apparentfrom the disclosure. In general, arrangements are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice one ormore of the embodiments, and it should be appreciated that otherarrangements may be utilized and that structural, logical, software,electrical and other changes may be made without departing from thescope of the embodiments. Particular features of one or more of theembodiments described herein may be described with reference to one ormore particular embodiments or figures that form a part of the presentdisclosure, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specificarrangements of one or more of the aspects. It should be appreciated,however, that such features are not limited to usage in the one or moreparticular embodiments or figures with reference to which they aredescribed. The present disclosure is neither a literal description ofall arrangements of one or more of the embodiments nor a listing offeatures of one or more of the embodiments that must be present in allarrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments and in order to morefully illustrate one or more embodiments. Similarly, although processsteps, method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in asequential order, such processes, methods and algorithms may generallybe configured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the embodiments, and does not imply thatthe illustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generallydescribed once per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once,or that they may only occur once each time a process, method, oralgorithm is carried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in someembodiments or some occurrences, or some steps may be executed more thanonce in a given aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments neednot include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular embodiments may include multiple iterationsof a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various embodiments in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary entry verification system 100 inaccordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. The entry verificationsystem 100 includes an entry verification apparatus 120 that may beincluded as a component of cloud services 125 hosted via a network 150.In an exemplary embodiment, an individual 140 seeks entry in to theestablishment 105 by interacting with a person who has been designatedas an entry monitor 110 for controlling entry into the establishment105. The establishment 105 can be any of various types where multiplepeople congregate, such as, for example, a restaurant, a store, ahousing complex, a hospital, a nursing home, an old age home, a school,a college, a bar, a mall, a place of worship, a sports arena, a concertvenue, a government office, a private office, premises of a company, awarehouse, a factory, a transport facility, a manufacturing facility, aproduction facility, and/or a vehicle (including rentable vehicle, aride share vehicle, etc.). The individual 140 may carry a form ofidentification (ID) 145 that he/she may present to a person who works asan entry monitor 110. The entry monitor 110 may execute an entryverification procedure in accordance with the disclosure for allowing ordisallowing the individual 140 into the establishment 105.

The ID 145 may be any of various types of objects or documents that maybe submitted to the individual 110 when requesting entry into theestablishment 105. A non-exhaustive list of example objects or documentsmay include a driver's license, a passport, a badge and/or a document)issued by a government agency, a badge and/or document issued by theestablishment 105, a badge and/or a document issued by a privatecompany, a badge and/or a document issued by a public company.

In one exemplary scenario, the individual 140 presents the ID 145 to theentry monitor 110. The entry monitor 110 may operate a user device 115,which can be any of various types of devices, such as, for example, asmartphone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, or a desktopcomputer. The entry monitor 110 may use the user device 115 to convertinformation contained in the ID 145 into digital data. For example, theentry monitor 110 may use the user device 115 to capture an image of theID 145, which, for example, may be a driver's license containing aphotograph 146 of the individual 140. The user device 115 may convertthe ID 145 into digital data such as, for example, in the form of a JPEGfile. The digital data may thus include information in the form of thephotograph 146 and text contained in the ID 145 (name, address, licensenumber, date of birth, etc.). In another case, the entry monitor 110 maymanually enter information contained in the ID 145 (such as, forexample, name, address, license number, date of birth, etc. of theindividual 140), which is then converted into digital data by the userdevice 115. In yet another case, the entry monitor 110 may manuallyenter information contained in the ID 145, which may be a document, forexample, and also use the user device 115 to capture a photograph of theindividual 140. The photograph and the entered information may beconverted into digital data by the user device 115.

The entry monitor 110 may then request the individual 140 to submit atest result report if the individual 140 has one to submit. The entrymonitor 110 may further request the individual 140 to grant permissionfor the entry verification system 100 to obtain the test result reportif the individual 140 does not have one available for submitting. Thisaction may be carried out is various ways such as, for example,requesting the individual 140 to sign a waiver that is crafted incompliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPPA) regulations. The test result report may be provided in the formof a paper document submitted by the individual 140 and/or in the formof digital content (image, email, fax, an attachment to an email, etc.)contained in (and/or otherwise accessed by) a user device (not shown) ofthe individual 140. The user device of the individual 140 may be anydevice such as, for example, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a portablecomputer, a phablet (phone plus tablet computer, or any smart devicesuch as smartwatch. In one embodiment, the individual 140 may submit hisor her test results to the verification apparatus 120 directly orindirectly. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, theindividual 140 may use an application that associated with theverification apparatus 120 and executing on the user device of theindividual 140 to upload or grant access to his or her test results.

In embodiments where appropriate, the digital data entered into the userdevice 115 of the entry monitor 110 is transmitted to the network 150through a communication medium such as, for example, a cellular link, awireless link, a WiFi link, a wired link, and/or an optical link. Thedigital data is routed through the network 150 to the entry verificationapparatus 120 that is included in the cloud services 125. The entryverification apparatus 120 may execute an entry verification procedureto determine an entry status of the individual 140 to the establishment105. In an example implementation, the entry verification procedure mayinvolve various operations such as receiving the digital datatransmitted by the user device 115. The digital data can include theidentification details of the individual 140 and may also include thetest result report (if the individual 140 has submitted such a report).In some cases, the individual 140 may not have a test result report onhis/her person, or the entry verification apparatus 120 may beconfigured to obtain the test result report from a source other than theindividual 140. For example, the entry verification apparatus 120 may beconfigured to obtain the test result report of the individual 140 from atesting laboratory such as LabCorp®, for example. Obtaining the testresult from a source other than the individual 140 may confer a certainlevel of authenticity to the test result report in at least some cases.

However, the entry verification apparatus 120 is further configured toevaluate the digital data obtained from the user device 115 of the entrymonitor 110, and/or user device of the individual 140 and/or a testinglaboratory (which may also include a results provider associated withthe testing laboratory) in order to verify/authenticate the identity ofthe individual 140 and also to evaluate the test result report to verifythe authenticity of the test result report. Verifying the identity ofthe individual may be performed in various ways. For example, the entryverification apparatus 120 may verify the identity of the individual 140by cross-checking information contained in a driver's license submittedby the individual 140 with data obtained from a government licensingauthority. Machine-readable elements that may be present in the driver'slicense may also be evaluated. Verifying the authenticity of the testresult report may be performed in various ways such as by evaluatingmachine-readable elements and digital data contained in the test resultreport.

In an exemplary implementation, the entry verification apparatus 120 mayverify the authenticity of the test result report by evaluating digitaldata associated with the test result report. For example, the entryverification apparatus 120 may verify the authenticity of the testresult report by evaluating metadata associated with a file containingthe test result report in the form of digital data. The test resultreport may be included in the file in any of various formats such as,for example, in the form of a portable document format (pdf) document,an extensible markup language (xml) document, a JavaScript ObjectNotation (JSON) file, a scraping from a website, and/or a spreadsheet.The entry verification apparatus 120 may process the digital data of thefile to determine if an entry in the test result report has beentampered with, such as, for example, to change a positive result of aninfection to a negative result. Such tampering typically generates adigital footprint that can be detected by the entry verificationapparatus 120 but is indiscernible to human eyes and is inaccessible toa human being without the use of a computer.

As another example, the entry verification apparatus 120 may verify theauthenticity of the digital document by evaluating one or more datapoints and/or pixels that may be contained or rendered with the digitaldocument. In one embodiment, the test results may be available in theform of text entered into a fillable form (a fillable pdf form, forexample) into which an individual may make manual entries. Theauthenticity evaluation may include identifying any discrepancies inspatial disposition of one or more text characters. The spatialdisposition may be characterized by features such as, for example, atext character that is located on the document at a spot other thanexpected, missing one or more punctuation marks, displacement of acharacter in one or more directions, and transposition of characters orwords. In one implementation, such features may be detected by using atemplate document. The template document may be generated in variousways such as, for example, by evaluating crowdsourced filled documentsfrom a number of people, examining filled document in historicalrecords, and/or based on information obtained from an author/originatorof an unfilled document. The level of granularity applied in identifyingspatial dispositions may be too high for execution of this procedure bya human being. For example, in some cases, the spatial dispositions maybe measured in the order of millimeters or microns.

As yet another example, the entry verification apparatus 120 may processthe digital data of the file by examining elements that may not bereadily discernible to humans and/or interpretable by humans, such as,for example, an invisible watermark, a seal with intricate content, abarcode, a UPC symbol, a holographic icon etc.

The test result report may provide various types of information and mayparticularly include an indication whether the individual is currentlyinfected, previously infected, not infected, and/or immunized against orfor a viral pathogen. However, various testing organizations may utilizevarious types of descriptions and terminology in their test resultreports. For example, a first testing laboratory may refer to an antigentest result using a “xxx” label and a second testing laboratory mayrefer to the same antigen test result using a “yyy” label. In otherembodiments, the test results may be printed on a PDF form. In otherembodiments yet, the test results may be contained in a resultsdocuments and/or a digital file in a variety of different form and/orfile formats. The test results may be presented in the form of checkmarks, “X” marks, radio selection elements, in the form of specific userinterface elements within a document and/or a file, etc., and may bepresent in a variety of different areas or portions of the resultsdocument or file. In another example, the type of test used to test amedical condition and/or a quantification of the test results may differfrom one testing organization to another. The entry verificationapparatus 120 may convert, if warranted, non-standardized informationcontained in one or more test result reports into standardizedinformation that can be used to compare and/or evaluate test resultsfrom multiple testing organizations. A few examples associated withconverting non-standardized information contained in the test resultreport into standardized information can include: re-arranging elementsof a name of the individual as provided in the test result report (suchas by placing a last name ahead of a first name and adding a comma afterthe last name), re-arranging elements of a date as provided in the testresult report (swapping a position of a day and a month, for example),and replacing a first label of a test result with a second label (“xxx”label of a test with “yyy” label for the same test).

Currently, it is very difficult for various agencies to monitor andtrack compliance with various tests in any meaningful way or to trackreal-time or near-real-time compliance because tests results providersare often disparate and unconnected to agencies that may want to act ortrack compliance with the results. Moreover, test results are oftenstored locally in a non-standard format selected by whichever hardwareor software platform is in use in the testing facility's local office(or stored locally on a user device associated with the individual 140).Moreover, test results are often siloed and inaccessible toestablishments 105 that may want access to these test results because ofpatient confidentiality rules. Moreover, because test results are oftenin unsecured documents, it is all but impossible to verify theauthenticity of the results or the document for meaningful compliancemonitoring. It is therefore difficult for test results providers toshare updated information about a patient or individual's 140 conditionwith others due to the above challenges. This can lead to problems withaccessing data, reading the data, verifying the data, among others. Inaddition, in contrast to other types of medical data, test results datais time-sensitive in nature and is reliable for only a certain, shortperiod of time. As such, the real-time and continuous nature of thepresent invention is important to enable the functionality of thepresent invention. Moreover, an individual 140 may get a test from avariety of different testing facilities that may use a variety ofdifferent testing procedures, each with a potentially differentrecordation and storage procedures, etc. Further compounding thedifficulty, the individual 140 may be vaccinated by a physician or anentirely unrelated provider who may store and present data in anentirely different way and/or format. Currently, none of the availablesystems can continually monitor a patient's test and immunizationrecords for updated information, which is often-times incomplete sincerecords are in separate locations, are not timely or readily-shared, orcannot be consolidated due to format inconsistencies as well as rankordering reliance on test result data for when more than one testresults are available.

To solve this problem, applicant has invented a network-based compliancemonitoring system that collects, converts and consolidates test resultinformation from various testing providers, and/or vaccination providersinto a standardized format, stores it in network-based storage devices,and enables real-time or near-real-time access in accordance with thedisclosure herein.

The entry verification apparatus 120 may also examine the rest resultreport to identify a date on which a test was conducted. If the testingwas carried out on a date that is earlier than a cutoff date, the entryverification apparatus 120 may deem the test result invalid. Forexample, if a test was carried out before a cutoff date then the entryverification apparatus 120 may deem the test result invalid and may denyentry to the individual 140. The cutoff date may be obtained from avariety of different sources as described in greater detail below,including from the establishment 105.

As a further part of the example scenario described above, the entryverification apparatus 120 may obtain entry requirements from varioussources for enabling the individual 140 to enter the establishment 105.The nature of the entry requirements can vary depending on the nature ofthe establishment 105. A commercial establishment such as a store or arestaurant may have a somewhat less stringent set of entry requirementsthan, for example, a hospital or a nursing home. The entry requirementsmay be stored in various places such as, for example, in a computer thatis a part of the cloud services 125 and/or in a computer located on thepremises of the establishment 105. In one embodiment, the entryrequirements may be comprised of a cutoff date or date ranges.

The entry verification apparatus 120 may then evaluate the informationderived from the test result report in view of the entry requirements.The results of the evaluation may be transmitted from the entryverification apparatus 120 to the user device 115 of the entry monitor110. In one embodiment, the results may be comprised of permit entry ordeny entry. The entry monitor 110 may refer to the results of theevaluation and take any of various types of actions. In one scenario,the entry monitor 110 may allow the individual 140 to enter theestablishment 105 if the evaluation result indicates that the individual140 meets the entry requirements (i.e. has tested negative for a viralpathogen within a cutoff period or if the individual is immunized orvaccinated against a viral pathogen or communicable disease, etc.). Inanother scenario, the entry monitor 110 may prohibit the individual 140from entering the establishment 105 if the evaluation result indicatesthat the individual 140 does not meet entry requirements (i.e. theindividual 140 is currently infected by the viral pathogen, test data ininconclusive, test results are prior to a cutoff date, etc.). The entrymonitor 110 may opt to convey the result of the evaluation to theindividual 140 or may refrain from doing so based on various guidelinesthat may be provided by the establishment 105 or other authorities.

In another exemplary embodiment, the individual 140 seeks entry into theestablishment 105 by interacting with a controller 136 that is a part ofan automated gate 135. In this exemplary embodiment, the individual 140may, for example, be seated in a vehicle that is pulled up next to theautomated gate 135. The automated gate 135 includes a lift bar 137 thatis operable under control of the controller 136.

In an exemplary scenario, the individual 140 presents the ID 45 to aninformation input element 138 of the automated gate 135. The informationinput element 138 may be a card reader, for example, and the ID 45 maybe a smartcard containing a smart chip, a card having a magnetic stripecontaining information, or a touchless card. Information contained inthe ID 45 in the form of digital data is automatically transmitted bythe controller 136 to the network 150 through a communication mediumsuch as, for example, a cellular link, a wireless link, a WiFi link, awired link, and/or an optical link. The digital data is routed throughthe network 150 to the entry verification apparatus 120. In someimplementations, the information input element 138 may further includean imaging device that is configured to capture an image of theindividual 140. The image may also be automatically transmitted by thecontroller 136 to the entry verification apparatus 120 via the network150.

The information input element 138 may further include a voice interface.The voice interface may include a voice synthesizer that operates undercontrol of the controller 136 to output a voice message requesting theindividual 140 to submit a test result report if the individual 140 hasone to submit. The voice message may further request the individual 140to grant permission for the entry verification system 100 to obtain thetest result report if the individual 140 does not have one available forsubmitting. This action may be carried out is various ways such as, forexample, requesting the individual 140 to sign a waiver that is craftedin compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPPA) regulations. The test result report may be provided to theinformation input element 138 in the form of a paper document (theimaging device may capture an image of the paper document) and/or in theform of digital content (image, email, fax, etc.) that is wirelesslytransmitted to the information input element 138 by a user device (notshown) of the individual 140. The controller 136 may then automaticallytransmit the test result report in the form of digital data to the entryverification apparatus 120 via the network 150.

The entry verification apparatus 120 may execute an entry verificationprocedure to determine an entry status of the individual 140 to theestablishment 105. The entry verification procedure in this embodimentmay be substantially similar to the entry verification proceduredescribed above. The evaluation results of the entry verificationprocedure may be transmitted from the entry verification apparatus 120to the controller 136. The controller 126 may make a determinationwhether to allow the individual 140 to enter the establishment 105 basedon the evaluation results. If the evaluation result indicates that theindividual 140 is not currently infected by the viral pathogen (forexample, COVID-19) and has not been infected before by the viralpathogen, or has been inoculated against a relevant viral pathogen,then, the controller 136 may lift the lift bar 137 and allow theindividual 140 to enter the establishment 105. If the evaluation resultindicates that the individual 140 is currently infected by the viralpathogen, the controller 136 may prohibit the individual 140 fromentering the establishment 105 by refusing to raise the lift bar 137. Inan example implementation, a voice message may be provided to theindividual 140 explaining the reason that the lift bar 137 has not beenlifted.

In one embodiment, the inventive network-based compliance monitoringsystem that collects, converts and consolidates test result informationfrom various testing providers, and/or vaccination providers into astandardized format, stores it in network-based storage devices, andenables real-time or near-real-time access in accordance with thedisclosure herein. More specifically, the entry verification apparatus120 generates messages notifying the individual 140 and/or theestablishment 105 whenever the individual's exposure status in relationto a communicable disease or a viral pathogen is updated (i.e. when newtest results are updated, when new vaccination or immunization recordsare available, or cutoff dates are crossed). The method provides agraphical user interface (GUI) by a entry verification apparatus 120,which is hardware or a combination of both hardware and software. In oneembodiment, the individual 140, an establishment 105, an entry monitor110, testing provider and/or vaccination provider is given remote accessthrough the GUI to view or update information about test result dataand/or relevant vaccination information using their own local device(e.g., a personal computer or wireless handheld device as describedabove). When a participant wants to update the records, they can inputthe update in any format used by the user's local device. Whenever theindividual 140 information is updated, it will first be converted intothe standardized format and then stored in a standardized format on oneor more of the network-based storage devices (not illustrated in FIG. 1but the specific implementation would be readily apparent to a person ofordinary skill in the art). After the updated information about thepatient's condition has been stored in the network-based storagedevices, the entry verification apparatus 120, which is connected to thenetwork-based storage devices, immediately generates a messagecontaining the updated information about the patient's condition inrelation to a contagious disease or a viral pathogen. This message istransmitted in a standardized format over the computer network to one ormore of the individual 140, verification services 120, and/or the userdevice 115 of the entry monitor 110 that have access to the individual's140 information so that one or more participants can quickly be notifiedof any changes without having to manually look up or consolidate all ofthe providers' updates. This ensures that at entry point, relevantparties always have immediate notice and access to changes so they canprovide safe and secure access to those who may want to access anestablishment 105 in a safe environment. The message can be in the formof an email message, text message, or other type of message known in theart.

In one embodiment, the inventive system may be comprised of the entryverification apparatus 120 and the user device associated with theindividual 140. In this embodiment, the individual 140 may download anapplication that is associated with the entry verification apparatus 120and executes on the user device of the individual 140 (or the individual140 may navigate to a website or a portal associated with the entryverification apparatus 120). The individual may submit his or herpersonal identifier (ID), and test result data (in the form of adocument upload, in the form of permitting access to his or her testresult data that may be stored by a test provider and/or a vaccinationprovider, etc.). The entry verification apparatus 120 may access therelevant data and may perform authentication and verification, andpermissioning steps disclosed herein. In this embodiment, the entryrequirements including the cutoff date may be set based on a consensus(i.e. universal time frame) that may be associated with gatherings ofvarious sizes and/or types. If the individual 140 is permitted to enterthe establishment 105, then the entry verification apparatus 120 maygenerate user interface elements which can be delivered for display onthe computing device of the individual 140. In this instance, theindividual 140 may display the UI elements to an entry monitor and gainaccess to the establishment 105 in this manner.

It must be understood that the user device 115 referred to above, maygenerally include a computer or computing device including functionalityfor communicating (e.g., remotely) over the network 150. Various userdevices such as, for example, the user device 115 and the user devicecarried by the individual 140, may be included in the entry verificationsystem 100 in various forms. As such, a user device may be a server, adesktop computer, a laptop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA),an in- or out-of-car navigation system, a smart phone or other cellularor mobile phone, or mobile gaming device, among other suitable computingdevices. User device 115 may execute one or more client applications,such as a web browser (e.g., Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer,Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera, etc.), or adedicated application to submit digital data, or to make predictionqueries over a network 150.

In particular embodiments, the user device 115 may be an electronicdevice including hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functions implemented or supported by the user device115. For example, and without limitation, the user device 115 may be adesktop computer system, a notebook computer system, a netbook computersystem, a handheld electronic device, or a mobile telephone. The presentdisclosure contemplates any user device 115. The user device 115 mayenable a network user at the user device 115 to access network 150. Theuser device 115 may enable its user to communicate with other users atother user devices.

The user device 115 may have a web browser, such as MICROSOFT INTERNETEXPLORER, GOOGLE CHROME or MOZILLA FIREFOX, and may have one or moreadd-ons, plug-ins, or other extensions, such as TOOLBAR or YAHOOTOOLBAR. The user device 115 may enable a user to enter a UniformResource Locator (URL) or other address directing the web browser to aserver, and the web browser may generate a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol(HTTP) request and communicate the HTTP request to server. The servermay accept the HTTP request and communicate to the user device 115 oneor more Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) files responsive to the HTTPrequest. The user device 115 may render a web page based on the HTMLfiles from server for presentation to the user. The present disclosurecontemplates any suitable web page files. As an example, and not by wayof limitation, web pages may render from HTML files, Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML)files, according to particular needs. Such pages may also executescripts such as, for example and without limitation, those written inJAVASCRIPT, JAVA, MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT, combinations of markup languageand scripts such as AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT and XML), and thelike. Herein, reference to a web page encompasses one or morecorresponding web page files (which a browser may use to render the webpage) and vice versa, where appropriate.

The user device 115 may also include an application that is loaded ontothe user device 115. The application obtains data from the network 150and displays it to the user within an application interface.

Exemplary user devices are illustrated in some of the subsequent figuresprovided herein. This disclosure contemplates any suitable number ofuser devices, including computing systems taking any suitable physicalform. As example and not by way of limitation, computing systems may bean embedded computer system, a system-on-chip (SOC), a single-boardcomputer system (SBC) (such as, for example, a computer-on-module (COM)or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computer system, a laptop ornotebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, a mainframe, a mesh ofcomputer systems, a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a server, or a combination of two or more of these. Whereappropriate, the computing system may include one or more computersystems; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations; spanmultiple machines; or reside in a cloud, which may include one or morecloud components in one or more networks. Where appropriate, one or morecomputing systems may perform without substantial spatial or temporallimitation one or more steps of one or more methods described orillustrated herein. As an example, and not by way of limitation, one ormore computing systems may perform in real time or in batch mode one ormore steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. Oneor more computing system may perform at different times or at differentlocations one or more steps of one or more methods described orillustrated herein, where appropriate.

Network 150 generally represents a network or collection of networks(such as the Internet or a corporate intranet, or a combination of both)over which the various components illustrated in FIG. 1 (including othercomponents that may be necessary to execute the system described herein,as would be readily understood to a person of ordinary skill in theart). In particular embodiments, network 150 is an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), awireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan areanetwork (MAN), a portion of the Internet, or a combination of two ormore such networks. One or more links connect the systems and databasesdescribed herein to the network 150. In particular embodiments, one ormore links each includes one or more wired, wireless, or optical links.In particular embodiments, one or more links each includes an intranet,an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a MAN, a portion of theInternet, or another link or a combination of two or more such links.The present disclosure contemplates any suitable network 150, and anysuitable link for connecting the various elements described herein.

In particular embodiments, the entry verification apparatus 120 may be aunitary server or may be a distributed server spanning multiplecomputers or multiple datacenters. Systems, engines, or modulesassociated with the entry verification apparatus 120 may be of varioustypes, such as, for example and without limitation, web server, newsserver, mail server, message server, advertising server, file server,application server, exchange server, database server, or proxy server.In particular embodiments, each system, engine or module may includehardware, software, or embedded logic components or a combination of twoor more such components for carrying out the appropriate functionalitiesimplemented or supported by their respective servers. For example, a webserver is generally capable of hosting websites containing web pages orparticular elements of web pages. More specifically, a web server mayhost HTML files or other file types, or may dynamically create orconstitute files upon a request, and communicate them to client devicesor other devices in response to HTTP or other requests from clientsdevices or other devices. A mail server is generally capable ofproviding electronic mail services to various client devices or otherdevices. A database server is generally capable of providing aninterface for managing data stored in one or more data stores.

In particular embodiments, one or more data storages may becommunicatively linked to one or more servers via one or more links. Inparticular embodiments, data storages may be used to store various typesof information. In particular embodiments, the information stored indata storages may be organized according to specific data structures. Inparticular embodiment, each data storage may be a relational database.Particular embodiments may provide interfaces that enable servers orclients to manage, e.g., retrieve, modify, add, or delete, theinformation stored in data storage.

The system may also contain other subsystems and databases, which arenot illustrated in FIG. 1 , but would be readily apparent to a person ofordinary skill in the art. For example, the system may include databasesfor storing data, storing features, storing outcomes (training sets),and storing models. Other databases and systems may be added orsubtracted, as would be readily understood by a person of ordinary skillin the art, without departing from the scope of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates some exemplary elements that may be included in theentry verification system 100 in accordance with another embodiment ofthe disclosure. The exemplary elements may include a data processingengine 184, a test results data store 183, an exposure analysis engine121 and a social media platform 185. In an exemplary embodiment, some orall of the data processing engine 184, the test results data store 183,and the exposure analysis engine 121 may be provided in the entryverification apparatus 120. In another embodiment, at least the testresults data store 183 may be provided in a device other than the entryverification apparatus 120. Such a device is communicatively coupled tothe network 150 to enable for communications with various other devicesincluding the entry verification apparatus 120.

The data processing engine 184 refers to a computing engine thatprocesses the digital data that is captured and/or obtained by the userdevice 115. In one embodiment, the data processing engine 184 receives,for example, an image of a user's identifier (such as the photograph 146of the individual 140 on the ID 145), and processes the received data toidentify an ID type. In one instance, the data processing engine 184 maydetermine whether the image is of a government issued license, or forexample, an employer issued ID card. The data processing engine 184 mayalso identify the name and other identifying information that may bepresent in the ID 145. In one embodiment, the user name information maybe provided to the exposure analysis engine 121 to determine whether theuser 140 has taken a test associated with one or more viruses and/orscreening protocols as described in detail below.

The exposure analysis engine 121 performs a lookup operation on the testresults data store 183 to retrieve the test data that may be associatedwith the user 145 identified by the data processing engine 184. Asdescribed in greater detail below, the exposure analysis engine 121 mayobtain a test results from the test result data store 130 and determinewhether those test results would enable a user to access theestablishment 105 based on the requirements set forth by theestablishment. In one embodiment, the exposure analysis engine 121 mayobtain the requirements set forth by the establishment and compare themagainst the test results data obtained from the test results data store183. If the requirements are met, the exposure analysis engine 121 mayprovide an indication to the user device 115 to enable a individual 140to enter the establishment 105.

The social media platform 185 may be any of various platforms thatsupport social media activities of various individuals, including theindividual 140 who is seeking entry into the establishment 105. A fewexamples of social media platform 185 may include Facebook®, WhatsApp®,Twitter®, and Snapchat®. Social media platform 185 may further includevarious website hosting services and chatroom platforms that supportchatrooms where individuals can interact privately or publicly with eachother.

In an example embodiment in accordance with the disclosure, the entryverification apparatus 120 may receive digital data from the user device115 of the entry monitor 110 and/or from a user device of the individual140 as described above. The entry verification apparatus 120 may thenexecute an entry verification procedure to determine an entry status ofthe individual 140 to the establishment 105. The entry verificationprocedure may involve various operations such as, for example,verifying/authenticating the identity of the individual 140 anddetermining a risk factor associated with a social behavior of theindividual 140. Verifying/authenticating the identity of the individual140 may be carried out in various ways such as by using the exampleprocedures described above.

Determining a risk factor associated with a social behavior of theindividual 140 may be carried out by accessing the social media platform185 to obtain digital data that provides information pertaining to thesocial activities of the individual 140. In an example operation, theentry verification apparatus 120 may obtain digital data from Facebook®and evaluate the digital data to determine whether the individual 140has been indulging in risky behavior that may have led to exposure ofthe individual 140 to a viral pathogen. Some examples of risky behaviormay include violation of social distancing norms, traveling to foreigncountries having high prevalence of a pandemic, and/or entering intofacilities such as nursing homes, hospitals, and college fraternities.The entry verification apparatus 120 may assign a risk factor to theindividual 140 based on his/her social behavior. In one exampleimplementation, the entry verification apparatus 120 may assign a riskfactor of 1 out of 10 to the individual 140 and a risk factor of 9 outof 10 to another individual. The entry verification apparatus 120 maythen determine an entry status of the individual 140 to enter theestablishment 105 based on carrying out operations such as obtainingentry requirements from various sources (including information on whatconstitutes an acceptable risk factor) and using the entry requirementsto either allow or deny the individual 140 entry into the establishment105. In one embodiment, the entry requirements may include a thresholdvalue of risk factor that the individual 140 must meet in order to beobtain entry into an establishment 105. If the risk factor associatedwith the individual 140 is above or below a threshold value, theindividual may be permitted or denied entry accordingly.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a system for enabling safesocial gatherings during or after the outbreak of a contagious virus.Specifically, FIG. 3 illustrates the components of the data processingengine 184 that is described above. The data processing engine 184 mayinclude an ID type engine 202, an artificial intelligence (AI)classifier 204, a data extraction engine 206, and a barcode datainterface 208.

The ID type engine 202 determines the type of ID that the individual 140may have provided to the user device 115 for a determination of whetherthe individual 140 should be allowed into the establishment 105 based onwhether the individual 140 may be a carrier of a contagious disease. Inone embodiment, the ID type engine 202 may determine whether the ID 145is a government issued ID, such as a driver's license, passport, etc., aprivately issued ID card, such an employee ID, student ID, etc. Inanother embodiment, the ID type engine 202 may also determine whetherthe ID 145 includes a photograph of the individual 140. If a photographis not detected in a government issued ID, for example, an alert may begenerated by the ID type engine 202. The ID type engine 202 may useavailable technologies to determine whether a provided ID card is agovernment issued ID, including, but not limited to an AI analysisengine, a special barcode reader/scanner that may process barcode datathat may be available on an ID card.

The barcode data interface 208 may process barcode information that isassociated with a government issued ID card and may obtain relevantinformation about the individual/user who is seeking entry into theestablishment 105. In one embodiment, the barcode data may be in theform of PDF417 barcodes, which are generally universal in North Americandriver's license. These barcodes follow specifications laid out by theAmerican Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), and canencode a lot of information, including the individual's name and otherinformation that may be used to retrieve medical information associatedwith the individual 140.

The AI classifier 204 may apply AI classification techniques to ID cardsthat are determined to be privately issued, by, for example, employers,educational institutes, etc. In one embodiment, the AI classifier 204may be comprised of a training dataset that is comprised of a variety ofdifferent privately issued ID cards. A variety of differentclassification algorithms may be used, as would be apparent to a personof ordinary skill in the art, to determine whether and where relevantinformation is printed onto the privately issued card.

The data embodied in the ID card may be extracted by the data extractionmodule 206 for processing by the exposure analysis engine 121. In oneembodiment, the data extraction module 206 extracts name and/or addressdata associated with the individual 140 who wishes to gain entry intothe establishment 105. The extracted data may be further processed suchthat the data may be used by a lookup system to retrieve additionalmedical and/or test data associated with the individual 140.

FIG. 4 illustrates the exposure analysis engine 121 that is illustratedin FIG. 2 . The exposure analysis engine 121 retries the medical/testdata associated with the individual 140 and determines whether theindividual 140 should be permitted entry into the establishment 105. Theexposure analysis engine 121 may include a data processing interface210, a medical data interface 212, a preference interface engine 214, ananalysis engine 216, and a permission indicator 218.

The data processing interface 210 interfaces with the data processingengine 184 to obtain information about the individual 140, including,but not limited to, name, address, and/or other personally identifyinginformation. In other instances, the data processing interface 210 mayalso interface with other computing systems and subsystems to, forexample, obtain permissions provided by the individual 140 tolookup/retrieve the test result report.

The medical data interface 212 interfaces with test results data store183 to obtain the test result report of the individual 140 that has beenretrieved by the data processing interface 210. In one embodiment, themedical data interface 212 may supply additional permissions andvalidation that may be required in order to obtain data from the testresults data store 183. For example, in some cases, the test resultsdata store 183 may require a user signature or pre-supplied permissionsto enable the medical data interface 212 to access the data that isassociated with the individual 140 in the test results data store 183.In one embodiment, the medical data interface 212 may obtain relevanttest results as well as associated data, including, but not limited tometadata. The additional data may be comprised of the date the test wasadministered, the type of test that was administer (for example, a nasalor oral swab test, a blood test, etc.). The test results data store 183may also include vaccination information, including the type of vaccinethat was administered and the date of administration. This data may beused, as described in more detail below, to enable or prevent entry ofthe individual 140 to the establishment 105.

The preference interface engine 214 obtains entry requirements that maybe set forth by the establishment 105. Entry requirements may vary andmay include, for example, that a particular type of test to have beenadministered to a user, at a particular time, and with a particular typeof results. Some establishments may, for example, require thatindividuals must have either a nasal/oral swab test within a previousone week in order to obtain entry. Other may only require, for example,a blood test to have been administered within the previous two weeks. Inthis manner, each establishment may set forth rules on who may enter anestablishment in accordance with its preferences and/or preferences ofvarious individuals (such as, for example, customers of a business) andmay provide sufficient comfort to these individuals. In otherembodiments, the establishment 105 may require that the individual 140have received a vaccine for a particular virus within a predeterminedtime. In such embodiments, the preference engine 214 obtains the entryrequirements associated with vaccines.

The analysis engine 216 compares the test results of the individual 140against entry requirements set forth by the establishment 105. In oneexemplary embodiment, the analysis engine 216 may generate a databaselisting the requirements obtained from the preference interface engine214 and may further populate the database with test results dataobtained from the medical data interface 212. The analysis engine 216may perform analysis to determine if the test results meet, exceed, ordo not meet the requirements obtained from the preference interfaceengine 214. In other embodiments, the analysis engine 216 determineswhether the test results data is within a certain range of therequirements set forth by the establishment 105. The analysis engine 216may also determine whether the test results are within a threshold rangeof the requirements set forth by the establishment 105. In otherembodiments, the analysis engine 216 may compare vaccination data of theindividual 140 against the entry requirements set forth by theestablishment 105. If the individual 140 has received a vaccine for aparticular contagion within a threshold period of time, then theindividual 140 may be enabled to enter the establishment 105.

The permission indicator 218 may generate a positive indication if thetest results of the individual 140 meet the requirements set forth bythe establishment 105 as determined by the analysis engine 216.Conversely, the permission indicator 218 may generate a negativeindication if the test results of the individual 140 do not meet therequirements set forth by the establishment 105 as determined by theanalysis engine 216. In one embodiment, the permission indicator 218 mayinterface with the user device 115 and may provide the indication suchthat the establishment 105 may be able to make realtime decision aboutwhether to permit or deny entry to the individual 140 who is seekingentry.

In another embodiment, the above-mentioned establishment may broadlyrefer to a transportation business including public transportationservices as well as private/individual transportation providers. Publictransportation services may be mass transit including, but not limitedto, buses, trains and subways. Private/individual transportationservices may be ridesharing services including, but not limited to,taxicabs, UBER, LYFT and the like.

In this embodiment, the exposure analysis engine 140 may be used to notonly provide the establishment with a result or permission indication,but may also be configured to provide both the establishment anduser/patron with an indication that the driver of a ridesharing servicehas satisfactory test results, so that users/patrons may be confidentthat use of the transportation service would not pose a direct threat ofexposure to a disease as a result of a driver's medical status.

In this scenario, the permission indicator 218 may be configured by theestablishment to include certain test result requirements be met by itsproviders (e.g. drivers) in order to participate in ridesharingservices. The indications from the permission indicator may becommunicated via network 150 to the establishment and to multiple userdevices 110 including both the user/patron and the transportationprovider (e.g. driver) so that all parties involved are informed aboutthe exposure risk associated with participation in the given service.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary flowchart of a method in accordance withthe disclosure to verify an identity of the individual 140 seeking entryinto the establishment 105. The specific system and method embodied inthis process is explained in more detail in FIGS. 3 and 4 . Asillustrated, the process may begin by obtaining ID information 302 inthe form of an ID card or some other identifier from the individual 140.A computing device may determine the ID type 304 by determining whetherthe obtained data is a government issued identification (such as adriver's license, passport, etc.), or a privately issued identification(such as a workplace issued badge, or a school issued ID). If agovernment issued ID is identified, the process may further determine ifit is a real ID 306. If it is, the process may obtain barcode data 308to obtain additional information that may be associated with the barcodeon the Real ID (if applicable). If the government issued ID is not aReal ID, or if the ID that is supplied by the individual 140 is aprivately issued ID, then the data associated with the ID is extracted312. The data extraction step 312 may retrieve the name, address, and/orother relevant information of the individual 140 that may be necessaryto access the test result report of the individual 140. In oneembodiment, the process may apply an AI classifier 310 to processprivately issued IDs in an effort to extract relevant data morereliably.

In one embodiment, the process may continue by identifying individualinformation 314 based on the extracted data. As described herein,individual information may include the name, address, medicalidentifier, etc. of the individual 140. The individual information maybe used to lookup the test results data of the individual 140 from atest results database. Alternatively, if a test result report isprovided, the process may compare the extracted name and/or other datato corresponding name and/or other data on the test result report toverify that the obtained test result is associated with the individualwho is described in the ID. The process may further determine whetherthe test result data meets the requirements set forth by theestablishment 105 by applying computerized analysis 318 as describedabove. If the individual meets the requirements then a positiveindication 320 may be provided to the user device 115. If the individualdoes not meet the requirements set forth by the establishment, then anegative indication 322 may be provided to the user device 115. Asdescribed above, a positive indication 320 may be used to permit entryand a negative indication 322 may be used to deny entry.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be describedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriatecomputing device), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or anyother suitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitabledevice, or any combination thereof. In at least some embodiments, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various embodimentsdisclosed herein may be implemented in one or more virtualized computingenvironments (e.g., network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted onone or more physical computing machines, or other appropriate virtualenvironments).

Referring now to FIG. 6 , there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machinesdescribed above, such as, for example, the entry verification apparatus120, or indeed any other electronic device capable of executingsoftware- or hardware-based instructions according to one or moreprograms stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configured tocommunicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such as clientsor servers, over communications networks such as the network 150.

In one aspect, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one aspect, a computing device 10 may be configuredor designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12, localmemory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In at least oneaspect, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of the differenttypes of functions and/or operations under the control of softwaremodules or components, which for example, may include an operatingsystem and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 13 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a particular aspect, alocal memory 11 (such as non-volatile random-access memory (RAM) and/orread-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels ofcached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one aspect, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 6 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe embodiments described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one aspect, single processor 13 handles communications aswell as routing computations, while in other embodiments a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In variousembodiments, different types of features or functionalities may beimplemented in a system according to the aspect that includes a userdevice (such as a tablet device or smartphone running client software)and server systems (such as a server system described in more detailbelow).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect mayemploy one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example,remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data,program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, orother information relating to the functionality of the embodimentsdescribed herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 16 or memory 11 mayalso be configured to store data structures, configuration data,encryption data, historical system operations information, or any otherspecific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems may be implemented on a standalonecomputing system. Referring now to FIG. 7 , there is shown a blockdiagram depicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or moreembodiments or components thereof on a standalone computing system.Computing device 20 includes processors 21 that may run software thatcarry out one or more functions or applications of embodiments, such asfor example a client application 24. Processors 21 may carry outcomputing instructions under control of an operating system 22 such as,for example, a version of MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLEmacOS™ or iOS™ operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases, one ormore shared services 23 may be operable in system 20, and may be usefulfor providing common services to client applications 24. Services 23 mayfor example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linuxenvironment, or any other type of common service architecture used withoperating system 21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable forreceiving user input, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen,microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball,or any combination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any typesuitable for providing output to one or more users, whether remote orlocal to system 20, and may include for example one or more screens forvisual output, speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25may be random-access memory having any structure and architecture knownin the art, for use by processors 21, for example to run software.Storage devices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor,or electrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (suchas those described above, referring to FIG. 5 ). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some embodiments, systems may be implemented on a distributedcomputing network, such as one having any number of clients and/orservers. Referring now to FIG. 8 , there is shown a block diagramdepicting an exemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least aportion of a system according to one aspect on a distributed computingnetwork. According to the aspect, any number of clients 33 may beprovided. Each client 33 may run software for implementing client-sideportions of a system; clients may comprise a system 20 such as thatillustrated in FIG. 7 . In addition, any number of servers 32 may beprovided for handling requests received from one or more clients 33.Clients 33 and servers 32 may communicate with one another via one ormore electronic networks 31, which may be in various embodiments any ofthe Internet, a wide area network, a mobile telephony network (such asCDMA or GSM cellular networks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX,LTE, and so forth), or a local area network (or indeed any networktopology known in the art; the aspect does not prefer any one networktopology over any other). Networks 31 may be implemented using any knownnetwork protocols, including for example wired and/or wirelessprotocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 32 may call external services37 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 37 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 31. In various embodiments, external services 37 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in one aspect where clientapplications 24 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 24 may obtain information stored in a serversystem 32 in the cloud or on an external service 37 deployed on one ormore of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use ofone or more specialized services or appliances that may be deployedlocally or remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one ormore databases 34 may be used or referred to by one or more embodiments.It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art thatdatabases 34 may be arranged in a wide variety of architectures andusing a wide variety of data access and manipulation means. For example,in various embodiments one or more databases 34 may comprise arelational database system using a structured query language (SQL),while others may comprise an alternative data storage technology such asthose referred to in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™,GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some embodiments, variant databasearchitectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file datarepositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciatedby one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known orfuture database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless aspecific database technology or a specific arrangement of components isspecified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it shouldbe appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to aphysical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a singledatabase system, or a logical database within an overall databasemanagement system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a givenuse of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of thesesenses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning ofthe term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some embodiments may make use of one or more security systems36 and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration managementare common information technology (IT) and web functions, and someamount of each are generally associated with any IT or web systems. Itshould be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with embodiments without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to keyboard 49, pointing device 50,hard disk 52, and real-time clock 51. NIC 53 connects to network 54,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of various embodiments may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe system of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variouslyimplemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Additional Considerations

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodimentsmay be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term“coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not indirect contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interactwith each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and Bis false (or not present), A is false (or not present)and Bis true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elementsand components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely forconvenience and to give a general sense of the invention. Thisdescription should be read to include one or at least one and thesingular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meantotherwise.

Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will appreciatestill additional alternative structural and functional designs for asystem and a process for creating an interactive message through thedisclosed principles herein. Thus, while particular embodiments andapplications have been illustrated and described, it is to be understoodthat the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the preciseconstruction and components disclosed herein. Various apparentmodifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangement,operation and details of the method and apparatus disclosed hereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope defined in the appendedclaims.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining whether to grantentry to an individual into the establishment, the method comprising:receiving, by an entry verification apparatus, digital data associatedwith the individual; obtaining, by the entry verification apparatus, atest result report that provides an indication whether the individual isone of currently infected by a viral pathogen, previously infected by aviral pathogen not infected by a viral pathogen, or immunized against aviral pathogen; evaluating, by the entry verification apparatus, thereceived digital data associated with the user and the obtained testresult report to verify that the obtained test result report isassociated with the individual; authenticating, by the entryverification apparatus, the obtained test result report by evaluating amachine readable element of the test result report; converting, by theentry verification apparatus, information contained in the test resultreport into a standardized format; obtaining, by the entry verificationapparatus, entry requirements for enabling entry into the establishment;analyzing, by the entry verification apparatus, the standardizedinformation and the entry requirements to determine whether the entryrequirements are met; and determining, by the entry verificationapparatus, an entry status based on whether the entry requirements aremet.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein authenticating the obtained testresult report comprises evaluating at least a portion of metadataassociated with the digital data.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinverifying the identity of the individual comprises: identifying a typeof an identification provided by the individual; when the identificationis issued by a government agency, extracting data from theidentification and evaluating the data to verify the identity of theindividual; when the identification is issued by a private entity,verifying an authenticity of the identification; and upon confirming theauthenticity, verifying the identity of the individual.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein evaluating the machine-readable element of the testresult report comprises evaluating a spatial disposition and/or amodification of a text character in a document.
 5. The method of claim4, wherein the document comprises manually-entered text and the textcharacter is a portion of the manually-entered text.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein converting to a standardized comprises identifyinginformation contained in a portion of the test result report and taggingthat information with a standardized tag.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein converting to a standardized format comprises re-arrangingelements of a name of the individual as provided in the test resultreport, re-arranging elements of a date as provided in the test resultreport, and replacing a first label of a test result in the test resultreport with a second label.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: obtaining, by the entry verification apparatus, a permissionfrom the individual for obtaining the test result report.
 9. A methodfor determining whether to grant entry to an individual into theestablishment, the method comprising: receiving, by an entryverification apparatus, a first digital data associated with an identityof the individual; evaluating, by the entry verification apparatus, thefirst digital data to verify the identity of the individual; receiving,by the entry verification apparatus, a second digital data associatedwith a social behavior of the individual; evaluating, by the entryverification apparatus, the second digital data to determine a riskfactor associated with the social behavior of the individual havingcaused exposure to a viral pathogen; obtaining, by the entryverification apparatus, entry requirements for enabling entry into theestablishment; and determining, by the entry verification apparatus, anentry status based on whether the risk factor exceeds a threshold valuethat is defined in the entry requirements.
 10. The method of claim 9,further comprising: transmitting, by the entry verification apparatus,to a controller of a gate entry system, an activation signal forautomatically opening a gate when the risk factor of the individual isbelow the threshold value defined in the entry requirements.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the second digital data contains informationprovided by a social media platform.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe information provided by the social media platform is contained in adigital image format and/or a text format.
 13. The method of claim 9,further comprising: obtaining, by the entry verification apparatus, atest result report that provides an indication whether the individual isone of currently infected, previously infected, or not infected by aviral pathogen; evaluating, by the entry verification apparatus, a thirddigital data and/or a machine-readable element of the test result reportto verify an authenticity of the test result report; and analyzing, bythe entry verification apparatus, the test result report to determinethe entry status further based on whether the individual is one ofcurrently infected, previously infected, or not infected by a viralpathogen.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: converting, bythe entry verification apparatus, non-standardized information containedin the test result report into standardized information; and analyzing,by the entry verification apparatus, the standardized information todetermine whether the entry requirements are met.
 15. An entryverification apparatus that determines whether to grant entry to anindividual into the establishment, the entry verification apparatuscomprising: a memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and aprocessor configured to access the memory and execute thecomputer-executable instructions to at least: receive digital dataassociated with the individual; obtain a test result report thatprovides an indication whether the individual is one of currentlyinfected by a viral pathogen, previously infected by a viral pathogen,not infected by a viral pathogen, or immunized against a viral pathogen;evaluate the received digital and the obtained test result report toverify that the obtained test result report is associated with theindividual; Authenticate the obtained test result report by evaluating amachine readable element of the test result report; convert informationcontained in the test result report into a standardized format; obtainentry requirements for enabling entry into the establishment; analyzethe standardized information and the entry requirements to determinewhether the entry requirements are met; and determine an entry statusbased on whether the entry requirements are met.
 16. The entryverification apparatus of claim 15 wherein the memory and the processorare housed in a server computer that is communicatively coupled to atleast one of a user device or a controller in a gate to theestablishment
 17. The entry verification apparatus of claim 15, whereinthe memory and the processor are housed in a controller of a gate entrysystem.
 18. The entry verification apparatus of claim 15, wherein theprocessor authenticates the test result report by evaluating at least aportion of metadata linked to a file comprising the test result report.19. The entry verification apparatus of claim 18, wherein the processorevaluates the portion of metadata by identifying an entry that indicatesa modification having been made upon the file.
 20. The entryverification apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor authenticatesthe machine-readable element of the test result report by evaluating aspatial disposition and/or a modification of a text character in adocument.